The story behind Paths Not Yet Taken

Paths Not Yet Taken was what you might describe as a slow burner.

Covid caused many things including - way down the list - yours truly deciding to write a novel.

You’ve spent your entire career writing for other people, I told myself. Now’s the time to write for yourself.

The question was, what?

It was during the first lockdown and my fourth weekly tidy up of the garage (anything to get out of the house). I opened the side door and stepped into the already immaculate space and thought: What if I’d opened the door and somebody was already in here?

A few moments into sweeping the already pristine floor: What if it was the prime minister? Then, two minutes later: What if it was the prime minister having a nervous breakdown? 

I grabbed my laptop, and started writing.

A couple of years, two or three vaccinations and just eighteen thousand words later, I gave up. There was no point. Real life superseded anything I had downloaded from my imagination onto the electronic page.

My draft may well have been sharp (okay, not blunt) and reasonably humorous, but it was outdone by the top-down madness enveloping society and suffocating humanity.

I didn’t want to write a book offering a view of a gloom-filled void with little sense or promise of a positive outcome. 

I played golf or walked the dogs instead.

I gave myself time, and that gave me hope. 

Generally speaking, politicians don’t set off with a dream of destroying the economy, tearing the fabric of the nation or jeopardising lives and futures (unless they're sleeper agents or being bribed/blackmailed by a foreign power).

At all levels of society, life gets in the way of what we hope to do and where we plan to be. Circumstances can be way beyond our control. Seemingly innocuous decisions we make can result in big unforeseen consequences (good and bad).

Some may well be content with the hand dealt to them. Others less so. 

Whatever the case, we each have a choice - to accept our norm or to change it; to stay on the current path or to choose another. 

That became the focus of the novel. I fired up the laptop once more. The plot changed dramatically; the characters not so much - although more were introduced.

The result, I hope, is something dramatic, funny in places and ultimately uplifting. A book to make the reader think as they smile, and smile as they think.

Should you read it, I sincerely hope you enjoy the journey.

Whichever path you choose, I wish you well.

Have you subscribed to Path Finders yet? It's free and you can unsubscribe at any time. 

Path Finders is a short newsletter I'll be emailing to subscribers every couple of months. It lists the updates I've made to the website since the previous newsletter - saving you coming back here for no reason! 

Plus, it provides you with exclusive first-peek access to new material, the occasional competition and the opportunity to help out with future novels in the series.

To register for your free subscription (AND receive three prologues to the novel, not published anywhere else), please click here.